


F*ck easy

by JustARandomShipper



Category: Harley Quinn (Cartoon 2019), Harley Quinn (Comics)
Genre: Bisexuality, F/F, Flirting, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Girlfriends - Freeform, Happy Ending, Hurt feelings, Indecision, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Slight Canon Divergence, Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, awkward moments, but also a bit "adult time", maybe a little bit slowburn, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:55:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26785498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustARandomShipper/pseuds/JustARandomShipper
Summary: Alternative storyline since the wedding:After Gordon crashing the wedding and Ivy’s eventual breakup with Kiteman, both Harley and Ivy are struggling to find out the true nature of their relationship and cope with their feelings for one another. Will the tension build up to an inevitable crash?
Relationships: Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy, Pamela Isley & Harleen Quinzel, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 21
Kudos: 104





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [the queer ladies and non-binary people](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=the+queer+ladies+and+non-binary+people).



> A few things: 
> 
> \- The most important thing: We're here, we're queer ... love that for us (and also allies)
> 
> \- I needed to write some Harlivy/ PoisonQuinn while waiting for season 3
> 
> \- Loved the ending of season 2 but I wanted to make them suffer a little bit longer before getting together ...  
> It's about the yearning ;)
> 
> \- it's been a while since my last fic so I have to get into writing again
> 
> \- and you're probably sick of reading this in the notes of every other fanfic but English isn't my first language so if any grammar nerds out there spot any errors or weird phrases, please feel free to correct me as it will improve my writing.
> 
> \- Also I love reading comments so whatever it is you need to get off your chest, leave it down there 
> 
> \- IMPORTANT: I know I said the last chapter would be up by now but I have some issues at home and I have other things to focus on but I won't let this fic die incomplete ... give me one or two weeks, chapter 3 half complete

* * *

She noticed that the priest had resumed with some sort of pretentious, philosophical speech about marriage – Ivy recalls how fucking annoying his obviously fake accent sounded – but the meaning behind his words was lost to Ivy and the only thing reaching her ears was a muffled, dull mashup of all the sounds in the chapel: The priest’s croaking voice, the faint ticking sound of Kiteman’s watch, someone clearing their throat in the back row – it all became but mind-numbing white noise to Ivy.  
She remembers listening to Kiteman’s vows, feeling the sheer panic building up inside of her at hearing the picture he painted of their future as if everything in her body was telling her to get out of that situation. Despite that, she had somehow managed to take a deep breath and get through her flashcards without revealing to every single one of her wedding guests that she was trying to fool them (and if she was being honest herself) into thinking this was the happiest day of her life.

_Well, maybe not all of them._

Ivy’s own thoughts betrayed her by wandering to Harley, who she knew was currently standing in the first row right next to Sy’s monitor, although Ivy has been avoiding looking at her since the very moment the ceremony started. Thinking back to the conversation they had earlier immediately gave Ivy this crushing feeling as if a hot ball inside of her was trying to force the metahuman to her knees while she could do nothing but cry silently, paralyzed by the pain. A feeling that Ivy was very familiar with by now, with all the emotional turmoil she has been through these last few weeks. Though she had hoped that her finally settling for Kiteman and now standing here in front of the altar, about to be married, would ease the pain and guilt, maybe even make it go away completely eventually, but it made it so much worse.  
It took all her willpower to hold back the tears that immediately tried to fill her eyes, although she couldn’t quite stop the lump from forming in her throat.

 _It is my goddam wedding day,_ she thought to herself.  
 _It is my goddam WEDDING DAY!_ This time, she gave the voice in her head more conviction, making it scream the words, in order to drown out the countless other whispers urging her to call her vines, rip her dress apart, tear a hole in the chapel’s wall and make a dramatic exit through said whole. _And drag Harley along!_

Her subconscious was a fucking traitor.

“Yes, I do!” Kiteman’s voice snapped Ivy back to reality. She hadn’t noticed how the priest had ended his speech and reached this point of the ceremony. She could no longer pretend that if she just closed her eyes long enough or focused on something else, this thing would be over soon and everything would be back to normal. There was no normal anymore, she would have to make a decision. _I’m choosing Chuck … right? That’s what I always said. I’ve made up my mind!_

“And do you, Pamela Isley, take Charles Brown to be your lawful wedded husband?”

The crucial question had arrived. Ivy panicked and searched for Kiteman’s eyes. He seemed so anticipating, so devoted, so convinced of his choice. Ivy hoped, that he could be her source of tranquillity, that his conviction would rub off of her, but somehow, seeing him so determined to be her husband made Ivy more repelled to the idea of their marriage.  
More seconds passed, to a point, at which the silence in the chapel became an uncomfortable one and Ivy could hear some people starting to murmur.  
She turned her head to the wedding guests, searched the rows, and then, finally, Harley, who had apparently stared at the floor up until this point, looked up and their eyes met. And for the first time, Ivy couldn’t tell what was going on inside her best friend, Harley facial expression was completely and disturbingly empty.

_This is all wrong._

* * *

“This is all wrong!”

Harley was halfway through the door when she was stopped by Ivy, who suddenly was grabbing her by the wrist. Harley flinched. She had been so close, only a few more seconds, and the door to Ivy’s dressing room would have fallen shut behind her, allowing Harley to break down without being seen after the fight she and her ( _former?)_ best friend just had.  
She swallowed, hoping it would help with the lump that had formed in her throat, and tried to gather the strength to face Ivy. But after being told that she wasn’t welcome at the wedding anymore, she didn’t know if she could bear to hear one more sentence leave Ivy’s mouth that would leave her heartbroken.

“This is all wrong”, Ivy repeated, more calmly this time, tugging at Harley’s wrist, gently forcing her to turn around. The blonde had finally managed to contain herself enough to look Ivy in the eyes and – to her surprise - was met with a conciliatory, loving gaze. All the anger and disappointment from their argument only seconds ago seemed to have vanished.  
Ivy took a step closer and before Harley could react, she pulled her in for a hug. Harley stood there in shock, unable to process what was happening, while Ivy was leaning down slightly so she could bury her head in Harley’s neck, one hand eagerly pressing the two women closer, the other hand stroking Harley’s hair. After a few heartbeats, Harley could free herself from her rigidity and ease into the embrace, deciding that her confusion over Ivy’s sudden mood change wasn’t as important as savouring this moment. She wrapped her arms around the taller woman and inhaled her scent.  
Flowers, of course. But not the type of aggressive flower smell they would sell as a perfume or hair product. No, it was more of the delicate smell of a field of wildflowers; Ivy smelt like nature itself in its purest and untouched form, and Harley was completely mesmerised by it, ready to forget about the outside world and be completely consumed by Ivy’s touch.  
However, this moment couldn’t last forever of course and their embrace was interrupted when the two hastily let go of each other, almost as if they had been caught doing something forbidden, as someone knocked on the dressing room’s door and exclaimed: “10 minutes to the ceremony. You don’t wanna be late for your own wedding, don’t you?”

Ivy sighed and took Harley’s hand.

“Look, I’m sorry for the whole ‘I don’t want you to be here’ thing. It was stupid. Of course, I want you at my wedding, no matter how many photographers you punch or how many times you exclaim your love for me while my fiancé is in the room”

Ivy nudged her softly in the side with her elbow, Harley’s face turned a bit red in embarrassment.

“Yeah, sorry about that”, she didn’t even know which of the two things she was apologising for.

“However I don’t think it’s too smart to have you standing with the other bridesmaids… for Chuck’s sake. I hope you understand, Harls”

Even hearing his nickname come out of her mouth stung, but Harley gave Ivy her typical grin – it was fake of course, but although she knew Ivy could see right through that, Harley hoped that it was convincing enough not to make her best friend feel bad – and tried to say her next sentences in a careless and happy voice.

“Yeah, no worries ‘bout that, I’ll just snuggle up next to good ol’ Sy and root for you from the front row”

Ivy gave her a weak smile. “Thanks”

An awkward silence ensued in which neither of them dared to make a move – _what’s the protocol for ‘saying goodbye to your best friend who is engaged and who you’ve kissed and fucked twice and confessed your love to despite that’ before her wedding ceremony again? -_ until Harley cleared her throat.

“Yeah, so um … see you in 10 minutes, I guess”, and she turned around, waving while walking out the door.

“Yeah … see you out there”

Right as she heard the door fall shut, Harley allowed her face to drop and leaned against a wall, taking deep breaths.  
After learning that Ivy wanted to go through with the wedding even after Psycho had revealed their affair to practically all of Gotham, that Ivy had chosen Kiteman over her, Harley has promised herself that she would support her best friend in any way she could. That she would lock her feelings deep inside her and be okay with them being married and that she would be happy on their account - _on HER account –_ and for the most part, she even managed to convince herself that she could handle it. Hell, even that it was what she wanted as well.  
It goes without explaining that Harley was incredibly touched by the fact that even after all the chaos she had caused and even after Kiteman explicitly stated that he didn’t want her there that day, Ivy still valued their friendship enough to let Harley be present. But she had to admit to herself that a small part of her has betrayed her own decision to accept Ivy’s choice, that Harley has felt relieved at the prospect of not having to see the person she loved getting married to someone else.

_And that’s exactly why she can’t love you. Just make up your stupid mind and stick to your decision._

Harley took one last deep breath and headed for the door to the chapel to join the other guests, not before making a beeline for one of those round tables with full champagne glasses though, and chugging five of them, having ultimately decided to just get through this, let Ivy go, and be there for her, as a friend. She whipped off the rest of the alcohol dripping from the corners of her mouth with her glove and marched into the hall.

_Let’s do this, bitches!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Updates, people, updates !
> 
> \- This is the last chapter that will retell and change the events of 2x13. The really heavy Harlivy stuff will start in chapter 3
> 
> \- As I said before, I really enjoy hearing your opinion in the comments so feel free leave me a little text, maybe fangirl/fanboy/fanby about this amazing cartoon  
> or vent about how much of a torture it is that whe have to wait for Season 3.
> 
> \- Also if you spot any spelling/grammatical errors, throw them at me!!

* * *

_No!_ Ivy wanted to scream the words but her vocal cords wouldn’t obey her.

 _No, no, no! Goddammit!_ _No, I do not!_

She inhaled to try one more time but instead of oxygen, it was smoke and faint traces of the green gas that filled her lungs.  
Ivy opened her eyes wide, only then realising that she had been seeing black the whole time, but was forced to blink as her eyes hadn’t yet adjusted to the brightness of the scene that was slowly unfolding before her. With every more detail that her still disoriented and drugged brain could make out, the memories of the events of the last minutes came rushing back, one after another. Ivy felt as if her tongue was covered with gross traces, tiny particles probably, of the sleep gas Gordon had used to paralyse her wedding-society, and the stench of burnt plastic made her turn up her nose. _Those fucking plastic flowers!_ Ivy could bite herself in the ass for not noticing earlier that her bouquets had been tampered with. She was the one who could control and communicate with plants, for God’s sake. _But to be fair, I had a shit ton of other things to worry about.  
_ Then suddenly it came back to her, the very last thing Ivy had seen before losing consciousness: The blurry image of pink and blue pigtails rushing towards her.  
  


* * *

Ivy’s vision cleared. She was lying on the ground, leaning against the bundles of hay outside the corn factory. She could feel the single straws pricking her exposed back like tiny needles.  
In front of her kneeled Harley. Ivy could see the concern in her eyes but the blonde was too distracted with trying to open the handcuffs around Ivy’s wrist using the bride’s hairpin, to notice that the other woman had woken up. Ivy’s gaze followed Harley’s movements and she noticed that it was Kiteman she has been handcuffed to (as her friend had just managed to pick the lock) who was apparently also about to fully regain consciousness, groaning.  
 _She must have carried us both out,_ it dawned on Ivy. _Jesus, how strong IS that woman?! There’s no way this is due to her gymnast training alone._  
Harley seemed to have noticed that Ivy was watching her and the two women made eye contact. She looked at Ivy, still having that unreadable facial expression.

“Harley, I’m really sorry for not believing you that Gordon would crash the wedding”.

In response, Harley gave Ivy a grin that was supposed to look light-hearted.

“Ah, no worries. You were preoccupied with other things – argh!”, Harley ducked and barely dodged a stray bullet from the fight between the GCPD and the villains who’d been invited to the wedding.

“I thought I could do something right for once”. Harley avoided being hit with a laser beam, more effortlessly this time, and continued seemingly unfazed:

“I just want you guys to be happy!”

Ivy looked into Harley’s icy blue eyes and immediately had to smile at feeling the sincerity behind those words. Even after every bad thing that had happened between them, even after all the pain of rejection Ivy must have caused, she was willing to put her own feelings behind and support Ivy’s marriage.  
Harley granted Ivy a small smile in return and in that short moment of intimacy, they felt as if they could drown out the whole world, the battle that was going on around them.

“So you want us to be happy, huh? How has that been working out for you recently?”

And just like that, the moment was over. Harley’s and Ivy’s heads snapped towards Kiteman who had stood up without them noticing and who was now waving his hands as if to catch someone’s attention.

“Yeah”, he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and bitterness, “the groom’s still here. Surprise, it’s me, Charles”

 _That’s it!_ Ivy felt the annoyance rise inside her. Sure, Kiteman was the one who had done nothing wrong in their relationship and he had good reasons to be angry, but he was also the one who still agreed to marry her, even after knowing what had happened between her and Harley. _It gives him no right to behave like an offended 3 rd grader when Harley had done her best and busted her ass to make this wedding happen. _  
Ivy was about to unleash this speech onto her almost-husband but Harley was quicker:

“Look, Kiteman. I know I’m probably the last person you want to see right now, but I meant what I said. I want you two to be happy. Here …”, she pulled out a laminated piece of paper from between her breasts, “I even got this license online in case something like that happened. I’m an ordained minister now, which means I can marry you two right here on the spot if you want to”

Ivy’s jaw dropped. Not only was Harley’s answer so much more polite than her own would have been, but the fact that she had even thought about a scenario like this...  
She looked at Kiteman expectantly, who was only staring at Harley, squinting his eyes. After a long pause, he turned his back on her.

“You’re right Harley”, his one Hand massaged the place on his wrist where he had been handcuffed too tightly, “you are the last person I want to see right now”

He started to walk away in the direction of the small forest next to the corn factory, miraculously without getting caught in the crossfire. Ivy quickly jumped to her feet, ready to follow her fiancé but not before stopping for a moment and looking back, only to see Harley take cover in order to avoid getting hit by the bullets of a young police officer, who had spotted them. She looked at Ivy and eagerly motioned in the direction Charles went.

“Go, go! He’ll come around, you’ll see!”, she screamed.

“But Harley …”

“I can handle this. Now go get your man!”

Still not fully convinced by Harley’s words but because she didn’t know what else to do, Ivy started running after Kiteman again, only seeing out of the corner of her eye how Harley knocked the cop unconscious after the moron had run out of ammunition too quickly.  
She caught up to Kiteman by the edge of the woods, where a few trees already shielded them a bit from the chaos in front of the factory.

“Charles, wait up!”, Ivy grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to look at her, his cold stare remaining.

“I … I don’t know how I could ever make up for fucking up so badly. But you said you still wanted to marry me and Harley is … she’s my best friend. And she’s gonna stay in my life, our life if you want it to be. I understand you’re hurt but how you’re treating her right now is not fai-“

  
“Not fair?!”, Kiteman interrupted her angrily, his eyes wide open in disbelief of what he’d heard.

“What’s not fair is that I had to find out yesterday that my fiancé had banged her ‘best friend’”, he mimicked quotation marks with his fingers at those words, “and that apparently she didn’t even plan on telling me. You were gonna do what? Get me to marry you and hide your affair for the rest of your life? Lying to me about it for the rest of your life?”

Ivy lowered her head in shame as she listened to Chuck talk himself into a rage. And the worst part was that she was aware that he had every right to be mad as hell right now. Ivy didn’t know exactly how she would have told him about what had happened between her and Harley, or if she would have told him at all. She hadn’t been thinking, and that was the problem. Ever since she noticed that her feelings towards Harley had changed – _or maybe I’ve been crushing on her since the very day she gifted me that flower in Arkham and I mistook the feelings for friendship? –_ she had been rushing from one thing to another, solely acting on her impulses: Kissing Harley, frantically denying the attraction between them, sleeping with Harley, rushing the wedding to run from her emotions.  
She never wanted to be that shit excuse for a person who cheated on their significant other. But the world isn’t black and white, it’s complicated and even more so are human emotions. She didn’t cheat because she actively wanted to or because she got a rush out of being unfaithful. She did it because she was overwhelmed by her own feelings, _can anyone really blame me for that?  
_ Ivy didn’t want to make excuses, her actions ended up hurting Charles, the person who had been nothing but genuinely nice and caring towards her, the person who she loved – who she’d thought she loved, but even if she didn’t, it was the person who she still had very compassionate feelings for and didn’t want to see in so much pain.

“And you want to know what’s also not fair?!”, Kiteman continued his speech, “That I had no time to sort out my emotions. I mean shit! I’ve known about what you did for only a day and the very next I’m getting married to you and I’m supposed to already be fine with all the information I’ve received?”

“You’re right!”, Ivy exclaimed. “You’re absolutely right and I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry I put you through that. You have done absolutely nothing wrong and I just put those expectations on you… I guess I just wanted to skip the time period where things were awkward between us and get on with this wedding in order to start our life together”

Kiteman threw his hands up in desperation.

“Ivy would you, for the love of God, stop lying to yourself for one second?! I know that … I’ve heard … I-”

He closed his eyes and caught his breath, calming down after a few moments while Ivy watched him, not understanding what point he was getting to.

“I’ve seen your face during the vows and for a second - it was so short I hoped that I had only imagined it - it slipped – your heart wasn’t in it. I tried to ignore it but then I saw the way you looked at her. I heard what you said, right before the attack”

He lowered his head.

“You already gave me an answer”

Ivy’s heart dropped. She remembered wanting to say no, but she didn’t recall that she had actually succeeded.

“Oh fuck, Charles, no I am – “

“It’s okay Ivy”, he interrupted her, but the anger in his voice was gone and all that was left was what sounded like the beginning of closure with a trace of regret. Kiteman stepped closer to Ivy and gently placed his hand on her cheek, caressing it with his thumb and whipping a single tear away that was rolling down her face.

“I’m simply not the person for you. I might have been had things gone differently. However, you need to stop pretending that this bond is what you really want deep down”

There was a loud bang and the splinters of a tree right next to them that had been hit by some kind of projectile missed the two by mere inches. The fight had caught up with them, leaving Ivy no time to actually process what he had just said.  
The cops had somehow been able to reassemble and coordinate their attacks and a group of them was headed towards Ivy and Kiteman.  
Chuck let go of her and activated his backpack, revealing an almost taunting “just married” sign on his green kite.

“I believe you got it from here. Maybe we can talk about this some more once this turns into more of a ‘water under the bridge’ situation?”

He gave her one last weak smile as if to say goodbye, then he took a run-up and pushed his feet off the ground.  
Ivy turned around, now facing the group of five cops that was heading towards her and who was now only a few feet away, and called to the vines she was surrounded by. She easily disarmed and tied up three of them, when Harley, having found a crowbar in the midst of the battle, showed up from behind them and knocked the other two unconscious before Ivy could even react.

“Hey!”, Harley pointed at a green spot in the sky, “Where the hell does he think he’s going?”

In the distance, Ivy could hear an orchestra of sirens approaching – the backup Gordon must have called for was about to arrive. She knew they had to get out of there quickly unless they wanted to be caught in the middle of an all-out battlefield, which Ivy was sure Harley would have loved a little bit too much for her own good. She scanned the area for their way out of this situation when a certain car caught her eye.

“Don’t worry about him. We ended things”

_Yeah right, more like HE ended things._

“What?!”, Harley shouted in disbelief, her voice competing with the noise of the sirens and explosions and gunfire around them.

“We kinda have more important things to worry about right now, Harls. Talk later”, Ivy grabbed Harley by the wrist and dragged the other women along. The pair had almost reached the parking lot when Harley yanked the green woman behind some stacked up containers, saving her from being fried by one of Gordon’s grenades.  
Ivy allowed herself to take in the feeling of Harley holding her tightly, pressing her head to her chest and protecting it from the shrapnels for only a second, or the way Harley’s hot breath was causing goosebumps on Ivy’s neck as both women were panting for air.  
Then the split-second was over and both women had to get moving again if they didn’t want to fall into Gordon’s hands.  
Still running, Ivy pointed at the red-ish Cadillac she and Kiteman had rented for their honeymoon and Harley immediately understood. Without opening the car’s doors, the two women jumped in and Harley started the motor, soon making a quick and brutal exit through the parking lot’s fence.

* * *

Escaping the cops had been child’s play for them, with Ivy able to control the trees on the side of the highway, blocking the way for most of their pursuers’ cars, and with Harley’s manic driving style.   
The sun had already set when Harley pulled into the street that Ivy lived in. They hadn’t spoken a word since the corn factory so now, standing in front of the door to her apartment building, Ivy didn’t know how to say goodbye to the blonde. Every phrase she could think of either felt too superficial or too intimate … not being aware of one’s feelings sucked.

Because they had lost the cops quickly and the drive to the city had been a quiet one, Ivy’s had some time to reflect on the things that had happened in just one day. Maybe it was because she hadn’t fully processed the impact her breakup with Kiteman would have on her life yet or maybe it was because there was no more pressure to get the wedding over with and having to sort out her emotions in record time, but Ivy couldn’t bring herself to feel sad. In fact, she was feeling unusually empty, when one would expect her to be overwhelmed by a thousand emotions in that situation.  
There was only one signal she was getting from her brain, and it was the feeling of not wanting to be alone right now.

“Harley I-“, she had to be careful not to make the following words sound like a cheap invitation for a hook-up. It wouldn’t be fair to lead Harley on and the last thing she wanted was to make her feel like a rebound.

“Do you maybe wanna stay with me?”

 _Fuck, not great, but not completely messed up,_ Ivy thought.

Harley, who was leaning against the car, raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, waiting for Ivy to clarify what she meant.

“I mean, I know I have my plants and all, but I think I would sleep much better knowing that my best friend was in the room next to me, and not only Frank”

 _There, better._ Now, that the nature of their future was so unsure Ivy found herself wanting to avoid destroying the small possibility of a romantic relationship at all costs. She didn’t fully allow herself to imagine what it would be like dating Harley yet, but she couldn’t deny that the thought of that possibility lightened her mood instantly and that her body practically screamed at her to find comfort in Harley’s arms.

Harley chuckled. “Ives, I think his ‘pot guy’ won’t bring Frank home until tomorrow morning or so … depends on how stoned he is”  
  


This made Ivy laugh, her first real laugh that day. “Yeah, we won’t see that trash-talking plant for a few days”

“But to answer the question: Yeah, I could stay the night”.

Ivy’s face lit up, but Harley hadn’t taken a step towards her yet and for a heartbeat, she feared that the blonde had changed her mind.

“Sooo … what should we do about the car then? Should we hide it or something?”, Harley asked.

_Right, the car. A red Cadillac doesn’t really get lost in the crowd in Gotham._

“Ah, fuck it. All I want to do right now is go to bed and sleep for like a week and if Gordon thinks he can pull some more shit after what he’s done today, he’ll be dead within a minute. So, are you coming or what?”

But Harley still didn’t move towards her.

“Just one thing”

The blonde violently ripped the ‘Just Married’ sign and the empty cans off the car and carelessly threw them in front of a passing truck (whose driver was not amused by that) so that only broken pieces remained.

“You know that I usually don’t leave my trash on the street, Red. But this time we’ll have to hope that the garbage collectors will actually do the job”

She dusted her hands in a satisfied manner and made her way to her best friend.

 _Well shit,_ Ivy thought, _it’ll be harder to keep my hands off her than I thought._

Although the mood had been light since they arrived at Ivy’s apartment, their interactions still had been very limited. It was as if both women were on unknown territory, even though they had known each other for years and this wasn’t the first time Harley would sleep over.  
Ivy prepared the guest room for Harley who at the same time cooked some simple Spaghetti with tomato sauce.

“Oh shit! What the hell happened to my kitchen?!”

Harley flinched. Ivy must have come back to the living area and seen the chaos the blonde had caused, which oddly resembled spilled intestines. Harley spun around, holding two plates in her hands like a waiter.

“I thought you might be hungry… since I didn’t have time to save that wedding cake”, she winked. “And this is the simplest vegan dish that I know”

Ivy still stared at the condition her kitchen was in disbelief, but as if the smell of food reminded her body that it actually hasn’t eaten in a day, her stomach growled and Harley took that as a confirmation to put the plates on the coffee table in front of the couch, where she was soon joined by Ivy whose desire for tidiness had been defeated by hunger.

“It’s probably not the best idea to eat anything with tomato sauce in a white wedding dress, but what the hell”

Next to Ivy, Harley slurped her spaghetti.

“You know, I think your dress looks fucking pretty on you, stains or no stains”

 _Fuck,_ Harley had spoken without thinking and suddenly, they were on dangerous territory again.

“I... I mean, “ she stammered, desperately trying to find the right words that would defuse the tension, “compared to my bridesmaid dress. It was not flattering AT ALL!”

_Wow, real smooth._

“Yeah,” Ivy chuckled half-heartedly, “good thing you got rid of it during your fight with the cops”

After that, neither of them knew how to pick up a conversation again, so they ate in silence and after their plates had been emptied, Ivy decided to take care of the mess that was her Kitchen in the morning. She stood up.

“I think I’m gonna take a shower and go right to bed. It’s been a hell of a day”

“You do that, Ives”

Once Ivy disappeared through the door, Harley let out a long sigh and began putting the dirty dishes away. Ending their evening on that note didn’t feel right to her, she wanted to go after Ivy, say something, anything to show her …

_Show her what? That you love her? Stick to your goddam decision for once, you clown!_

“Harls?”, Ivy, who had reappeared in the door frame, interrupted her self-loathing and made her look up expectantly.

“What is it?”

Harley could have sworn that the skin on Ivy’s cheeks got a shade darker before she continued to speak, but she chalked it up as her subconscious’ wishful thinking.

“That’s fucking embarrassing but the, uhm, the zipper of my dress must have been damaged during the attack and now it’s kinda stuck”

“Say no more”

Harley spun Ivy around and got to work, trying not to think about how close they were to each other at that moment. The dress left Ivy’s back exposed and it took all of Harley’s willpower not to trace down her spine and feel the soft, green skin underneath her fingertips. It wouldn’t be the first time she’s done that, it was almost as if her hands remembered the exact places they had touched Ivy’s back before and automatically wanted to feel them again.  
As Ivy could feel the heat Harley’s body radiated even through the fabric on her lower back, the memories of their nights at Themyscira flooded back into her mind as well. She closed her eyes and contemplated giving up her resistance and just let herself be controlled by her instincts again, but with the memories of the bachelorette party also came the memory of Psycho broadcasting those for all of Gotham to see and that was the only thing able to hold her back right now.   
  


“There, done”, Harley exclaimed and she carefully yanked at the fabric one more time, causing the zipper to open all the way down, exposing even more of Ivy’s skin.  
Without really controlling it, Harley’s hands remained on Ivy’s hips for a bit longer, before the blonde shook her head and broke her trance.  
This one moment, the few milliseconds Harley’s hand had lingered on her friends back, almost gave Ivy the courage to grab Harley’s face, pull her close, run her hands through her hair and make them both sink to the ground while still sharing an embrace, simply observing how the soothing warmth of each other’s bodies would ease the pain and the tension between them. It was really hard not to give in to this desire, but when Ivy turned around and spotted the conflict in Harley’s eyes, she decided that they’ve had enough emotional turmoil for one day. Still, she couldn’t resist placing her hand on the other woman’s shoulder and caressing it, a gesture that could be read as a sign of affection between to platonic friends and that Ivy hoped would show Harley, that although any issues between them were far from being resolved, the two were okay for now.  
Harley thanked her with a content huff.

“See ya tomorrow, Ives”

Ivy made her way into the bathroom, smiling to herself.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Sorry this story took me soooo long to finish, but I'm starting my first semester at my university and the f*cking  
> c-word (aka the virus that shall not be named) isn't making things easy.
> 
> \- I also have to baby kittens now and I love them very much ( ♥ ͜ʖ ♥) soooo that took up a good portion of my time as well, sorry not sorry
> 
> \- As I said before in the notes of the last two chapters but you will hear it again (read that part in Captain Holt's voice), I enjoy hearing your opinion in the comments so feel free leave me a little text, maybe fangirl/fanboy/fanby about this amazing cartoonreally  
> or vent about how much of a torture it is that whe have to wait for Season 3.
> 
> \- Also if you spot any spelling/grammatical errors, throw them at me!!

* * *

In her lifetime, Harley had done countless things that would have killed any normal human without even breaking a sweat, but from her current position, her and Ivy standing in Ivy’s walk-in shower both wearing nothing but their underwear, she found it to be the most difficult thing she had ever done not to slam the green woman into the wall and kiss her until she ran out of breath.

_This “Just being good friends” thing is gonna kill me one of these days… buuut a little show at the mental cinema can’t hurt, right?_

“Hey!”

Harley’s thoughts were interrupted when a soaked sponge that Ivy had thrown hit her in the face.

“Less daydreaming, more scrubbing!” she demanded.

Harley grumbled but obeyed. _Daydreaming? More like starting to have a full-on sex phantasy about you._

For the last few weeks, Harley had been careful to avoid any situations where she would get too close to Ivy or even spend too much time alone in one room with her, not after the way she reacted when asked to help her with the stuck zipper on her wedding dress. Still, she didn’t always succeed in pushing her attraction for her best friend to the back of her mind, and every time she let her guard down and allowed her thoughts to wander in a dangerous, non-PG direction, she would feel bad about it and beat herself up for the longest time.

 _I can’t act on them, I can’t act on them, I CAN’T act on them!_ is what has become her mantra whenever she got urges to get closer to Ivy again.

_This time, I would lose her for good._

“Ugh, I can’t believe we have to do this again!”, Ivy interrupted Harley’s self-loathing.

“One would think you would learn after the FUCKING FIFTH TIME that modern ATMs use ink in order to protect the money stored in them”.

Harley looked to the ground where a mixture of water and deep blue ink made its way to the shower drain.

Yes, she had been avoiding Ivy, but she had also repeatedly told her that nothing had changed in their friendship and today Harley had been unable to come up with yet another excuse why Ivy couldn’t join her on her heist without raising any suspicions in the metahuman. 

“Sorry Ives”.

Ivy answered with a resigned huff and they continued to scrub the paint off their bodies in silence until their skin couldn’t take it anymore and Ivy called it a day.

“Well, I think we won’t get much cleaner than that”, she declared as she took the showerhead, pointed it at Harley’s torso, and let the stream of water wash off the last traces of soap on the blonde’s body.

Although she would never admit it, Ivy wasn’t really angry about the ink incident or the fact that it had ruined her livingroom carpet. These days she was grateful for every moment she could spend with Harley in which there was no awkward silence or pointless Smalltalk, even if that meant reckless missions and looking like a sexy fanart of a smurf for a week.  
She was just irritated because she had to use every bit of self-control she possessed not to touch Harley’s toned body, not to listen to those traitorous voices in her head telling her to repeat what they’d done on Themyscira.  
It was fucking hard and Harley, only in her soaked underwear just inches away, didn’t make it easier.

_Why do I have to hold back, though?”_

There it was, that one thought again that has been getting louder and louder every day for the past few weeks and that had even caused Ivy to flirt with Harley on more than one occasion: One promising gaze here, a lip bite there, and of course ‘accidentally touching’ the blonde’s hips or neck whenever she walked past her in the mall or her apartment.  
It has become harder for Ivy to find excuses, to justify and rationalise why she couldn’t just act on her feelings and maybe start a relationship with her.

_Whoa there … relationship?! This is new._

It is true, ever since she had talked to Kiteman after their disaster wedding, ever since they had cleared the air between them and agreed on remaining friendly with each other, Ivy had thought about the picture Harley had painted of their future on the Amazons’ island.  
Living together, traveling together, fighting together, sleeping together … it was the definition of a relationship and yet Ivy hadn’t dared to call it that in her mind ever before.  
  
Maybe it was because she felt that Harley was more distant than before, despite her many attempts to convince Ivy otherwise. Ivy couldn’t be fooled, she KNEW Harley better than anyone and she KNEW a cheap excuse when she heard one … and she has heard many of them leave Harley’s lips for the last weeks.

Or maybe it was because she had needed the time to figure out what she really wanted. After all, at first Harley’s many affirmations that they could remain best friends didn’t sound so bad. They sounded like a piece of normality while every other aspect of her life was pure chaos. But it has become abundantly clear that going back to the way things were before wasn’t possible and maybe this whole thing wasn’t about “fixing” their relationship, it was about taking it to the next level.

This realisation hit Ivy the same moment Harley clearing her throat interrupted her train of thoughts.  
The blonde looked at her with an insecure expression on her face and Ivy blushed as she realised that she had been staring at Harley the whole time they had been drying themselves off and changing back into their clothes.

The way Harley looked at her, expectantly, unsure, maybe a little provocatively, reinforced Ivy’s decision even more. She wouldn’t act as if everything was normal. She would take a leap of faith and do something for once. And she was gonna do it tonight.

“Sooo … you hungry?”

* * *

  
“And then I said: ‘Ah, you know, I’ve done the usual amount of acid, but once you fall into a pool of the actual stuff, nothing really compares anymore’”

Ivy snorted and almost choked on her drink as Harley finished yet another anecdote from her past with a wide grin on her face. She had been telling Ivy funny stories while they had been eating their take out and despite the initial awkwardness, it had been a nice evening thus far.

“You know Harls …”, Ivy began once she had gained her composure again, “stories like these remind me every time why I wanted YOU to do the stand-up programme at the pit instead of me”

“Yeah”, Harley chuckled into her fist, “I would have ACEEED it! But you know, your moment of self-reflection was worth it or whatever”, she smirked and gently nudged Ivy with her elbow.  
Ivy gave her a genuine smile back. They locked eyes for just one moment too long and just like that, the dynamic between them shifted and they were on dangerous territory again.  
Still unsure whether or not this was the right moment to make a move, Ivy watched Harley take a deep breath as if to comfort herself, before the blonde reached out and took Ivy’s hand.

“Listen Ives … what you said down there about life having a way of ironically and unmercifully changing for the worse once you think things are going up …”, Harley began tracing circles with her thumb on the back of Ivy’s hand and the metahuman didn’t know whether it was a conscious act of affection or one of Harley’s fidgets.

“I know I’ve apologised before but it never feels like enough. I’m sorry I’m the reason your life is such chaos right now and I promise you, I will be there for you no matter wha-“, she was interrupted as Ivy lunged forward and captured Harley’s lips in a rough kiss.

Ivy knew what Harley had wanted to say and quite frankly she couldn’t bear to hear the words anymore. ‘I will always be there for you as a friend … just as a friend’

Her body had reacted quicker than her mind could have but now she was slowly coming to her senses and pulled back carefully. Harley’s head followed Ivy’s motion for a second but then stopped, breaking the kiss with a huff escaping Harley’s lips.  
Both women opened her eyes at the same time, staring at each other with blank expressions and it reminded them so vividly of the time they had kissed by the pit that the memory almost became painful.

“Fuck was that … is that okay?!”, Ivy asked but Harley, whose hand was still touching Ivy’s, tugged her close again and soon the two women were clashing against each other with the same hunger as before.

… that was until Harley suddenly pulled back. Ivy blinked her eyes open in confusion and only saw Harley’s back, as the blonde made her way to the door.

“Sss-sorry”, she stammered, “I totally forgot I have a… uhm… a thing”.

Her hand was already on the doorknob when she noticed the dozens of vines forming an almost impenetrable wall that hindered Harley from exiting.  
Like a snake slowly crawling up its next victim Harley felt another single vine around her waist, fixating her. She knew what was coming and she wasn’t ready to face Ivy, wasn’t strong enough to look her in the eye. Breaking the kiss and trying to get out of the apartment, doing the right thing, had already used up all her willpower for today, so she simply squeezed her eyes shut in defeat as she felt the vine turn her around.

“Enough with the stupid fucking excuses, Harley!! This is bullshit, and you know it!”, she heard Ivy scream, then footsteps, coming right for her.

“This isn’t working, can’t you see that?! We can’t ignore the issue forever … and now what? You can’t even look me in the eye?!”

Harley tried to fight back the tears of anger and heartbreak and defeat unsuccessfully and soon they were pouring down her face but she was still keeping her eyes shut. She knew everything Ivy was saying was right, she knew she couldn’t ignore her feelings forever and she knew that they could never go back to the way things were but up until now, Harley had been convinced that the only other option was to leave Ivy behind and this would cause her even more pain than watching the woman she loved fall for someone else.  
But then Ivy had kissed her, had flirted with her for weeks and the confusion was simply too much for her.

Harley now felt Ivy’s shaky breath on her collarbone and she got goosebumps wherever the hot air touched her skin ever so lightly.

“You heard that I wanted to say ‘No’, Harls”, Ivy now whispered.

Harley noticed that the other woman had thrown her arms around her neck and was desperately hugging the blonde as best as she could in her position, still being shackled by the vines.

The broken-hearted tone of Ivy’s voice was enough for Harley to open her eyes and the scene before her made her heart ache. Now it was Ivy who had her eyes closed, her face pressed into the crook of Harley’s neck and clinging to the blonde as if holding on for dear life. Harley untangled her arms and hugged Ivy back, bringing her mouth near her ear.

“Yeah. I heard that”, her voice was nothing more but a faint breath. Ivy looked up and Harley could feel the vines loosen their grip on her until she was standing on her own two feet again, still holding the red-haired woman in her arms.

“Then why in the world where you still so determined to make Kiteman’s and my wedding happen, huh? Tell me: What kind of self-manipulating, self-destructive masochist do you have to be to do something that stupid?!”, Ivy’s rage grew with every word, and eventually the spark of anger lit the fire within Harley, as well.

“You wanna know why?! I swore myself that I would never obsess over someone as I did with Joker ever again!! That I would never be that blind, brainwashed – what did you call it? – self-destructive masochist again but guess where that landed me?!”, her voice almost broke because of how loud she was screaming.

“ All I wanted was to be a freaking good friend, for once and I tried, Ivy, I tried really fucking hard but you’re not making it easy for me, with all your flirting and touching and stealing glances at me after I shower …”

The two women glared angrily at each other for what felt like minutes and Ivy’s brain had barely processed what Harley had hurled at her but somehow the rage and her loving feelings for Harley found a balance and Ivy grabbed Harley’s neck, roughly pulled the blonde close to her, so close their foreheads almost touched, and all she had to say was:

“Fuck easy”

* * *

The sex wasn’t tender or loving at all. It couldn’t even be compared to the nights Harley and Ivy had spent together on Themyscira, fuelled by the drugs and alcohol that were numbing their mind. No, this time they knew exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it: Out of anger, out of frustration, out of the animalistic desire to relieve that tension that had been building up for weeks.

They didn’t take their time, they clashed together like waves against the shore, but somehow Harley and Ivy worked … and they worked well.

Ivy didn’t know what she expected when spoke those words. _Fuck easy._ But something in Harley had changed the second they had left her lips as if someone had turned a switch, and suddenly Ivy found herself being almost devoured by Harley, who was kissing her with a feeling of hunger and lust like she had never experienced before. Somehow they had made their way into Ivy’s bedroom. This hadn’t been a game they had played together - Ivy pushing Harley against a wall, Harley pinning Ivy down on her bed by her wrists - it had been a fight for dominance, and for the moment, it seemed like Harley was winning, as she carelessly ripped the clothes off of Ivy’s body despite her withering look and started exploring the other woman’s body with her lips, making Ivy inhale sharply whenever Harley left another hickey on her torso.

Harley wasn’t sure herself whether she did this because she wanted Ivy to feel so good that she would want to stay with her or whether she wanted Ivy to remember this moment, the way her body reacted to Harley’s touch, whenever she would be with someone else in the future after their relationship would end up in flames.  
After their fight – that they technically still had – she feared it might be the latter but she decided it didn’t matter because she certainly would think about this night for the rest of her life so she might as well make it a good one.

Harley tried to take everything in: Ivy’s smell, the heat of her body, the way she tasted, the way Ivy tried to suppress her moans and where she had to touch the other woman so she couldn’t hold them back anymore. The way she moved her hips and pushed herself against Harley’s fingers, the expression in Ivy’s eyes when she flipped both of them around, the way her lips felt against Harley’s chest or the sight of Ivy kissing her way up Harley’s body after reappearing from between her thighs. 

At some point, however, the feelings of anger and resentment simply evaporated and the will to fight was replaced by fatigue and a desire for peace of mind.  
At some point, the heat of the moment wasn’t strong enough to suppress the millions of thoughts going through their heads anymore.  
At some point Harley found herself standing on the balcony, leaning against Ivy’s shoulder, staring at the city below them, Ivy’s arms wrapped around her from behind.  
At some point, Harley dared to say out loud what was going through her head.

“You don’t actually mean that”

“Huh?”. Ivy had rested her head on Harley’s so the smaller woman could feel the warmth of Ivy’s breath on her scalp as she spoke.

It dawned on Ivy what Harley was getting at.

“I’ve had easy with Chuck, and that didn’t work. I want you, Harls, I want to take that risk”.

Somehow, the cold air of the night and them simply staring at the city lights, not even having to look each other in the eye, no more built-up sexual tension between them for the moment, made it easier for them to say exactly what was going through their minds.

“No, you don’t. You’ve said it yourself on Themyscira”

Ivy thought back to the time they exited the invisible jet.

_I trust you with MY LIFE… but I don’t trust you with my heart_

Ivy realised ashamed that she had never given it much thought how much those words must have hurt Harley. She wasn’t blind, she had seen the expression on her best friend’s face, the tears in her eyes, and the suppressed whimpers in the moments before she and Kiteman had flown away together, but she hadn’t thought about how much of a hurtful impact those words must have really had.

It was stupid of her, she recognised that now. She had known Harley for so long, she should have known that the blonde must have played Ivy’s rejection on repeat in her head for the last months.  
However, before Ivy could even think of the right thing to say to reassure her friend that Ivy hadn’t meant those words, Harley continued:

“You KNEW, even back then, that acting on these feelings would hurt people, and eventually it did. I know what you were thinking: I am not an easy person to love – it’s true. I know I’m impulsive and unpredictable but you, Ives, you are my constant, and maybe a relationship or whatever would ruin even that”

Tears filled Ivy’s eyes and the lump that had formed in her throat during Harley’s speech had paralysed her so she couldn’t interrupt the blonde.  
Harley lowered her head and her voice almost broke at the next words.

“So all I can do now is hoping that you were right and that these feelings I have for you will go away eventually”

Ivy couldn’t take this anymore. She spun Harley around, holding her by her shoulders, and screamed at her face.

“I DON’T WANT THEM TO, GODDAMMIT! I WAN- “, Ivy inhaled slowly so she would gain her composure back,  
“Shit Harls, you mean to tell me that’s what you have been waiting for these last weeks? For your feelings to go away while I wanted nothing more than to kiss your stupid, pretty face?”

She placed her hand on Harley’s chin and lifted her head up so that they could look each other in the eye.

“I don’t want your feelings to go away … and to be honest with you I don’t think they will.  
Look, I’m not a Psychiatrist”, at that Harley hat so smile, “but I know that MY FEELINGS didn’t simply disappear, not after denying them for months while being with Kiteman, not after the Pit, not after Themyscira, not after I tried to bury them while rushing into the wedding and certainly not now.  
People got hurt not because we acted on our feelings but because we tried to ignore them”, she lovingly stroked Harley’s cheek with her thumb and smiled knowing where the other woman’s mind would wander to after her next words,  
“… which has proven to be impossible”  
  


“Yeah, proven multiple times”, Harley answered with a grin and held one of her hands out, demanding a high-five from Ivy to which she complied not without playfully rolling her eyes.

“Yes, Harls, MULTIPLE times, including the last two hours”

Both women crackled.

“You were out there apologising to me when it is I who has to say sorry … about what I said to you after the bachelorette”

Ivy saw the protest in Harley’s eyes, but the blonde woman was empathetic enough not to interrupt her friend’s – _lover’s … maybe? I mean … is that what she’s trying to say here? -_ speech.

“I was scared, not because I actually thought that your feelings for me were a typical temporary ‘Harley phase’ that would be over in no time … but because I was afraid that they weren’t. And I was scared of getting into something so unknown to both of us”

Harley, after weeks of no longer daring to dream about a future with Ivy, couldn’t believe the words that were about to leave her mouth, but even after banning her love for Ivy to the back of her mind for such a long time, they came naturally, without her having to search for the right things to say. She just spoke from her heart, the heart that was still so overwhelmed by Ivy’s confession, by the experience of being intimate with Ivy again, and by the weight that had been lifted off her chest with every sentence that Ivy had spoken during the last minutes.

“Is it really that new, though? Think about it, Ives. We like, spent almost every day together anyways, we are a fucking badass team and when it comes to the romance and sex stuff … you can’t say we don’t have that figured out perfectly”

Now it was Harley’s turn to reassure Ivy.

“Of course there will be new things, and yes, we may fight and yes, we’ll have great make-up sex later and yes the dynamic between us won’t be the same as before … but it won’t be completely different. When have our lives ever been normal?”

Ivy’s breathing had become faster during Harley’s announcement until she couldn’t control the overwhelming feeling of love and joy anymore and she clashed against the blonde, burying her hands in her hair, almost losing it at the way Harley wrapped her arms around her neck and responded to the kiss, intertwining their tongues and feeling each others' heartbeat through the other’s chest.

“I love you, Harls”, Ivy breathed in between kisses.

“I love ya, to-umpf”

“Shhhh, I know. It was my turn to say it”, Ivy interrupted her girlfriend – _wow, she’s my ‘girlfriend’ … I can get used to that –_ and continued placing kisses all over Harley’s neck, because now she could do so whenever they were down for it, because there was no guilt anymore, no shame, just her and Harley.


End file.
